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Hedge-Morrell's amendment to police officers' off-duty work could benefit her sons, The Lens reports

Cynthia Hedge-Morrell.jpg

Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell may have violated state ethics law when she amended a proposed city ordinance governing police officers' off-duty work to exclude major events such as ones at the Fair Grounds, where her two sons work.
(File photo)

Councilwoman Cynthia Hedge-Morrell may have violated state
ethics law when she amended a proposed city ordinance governing police
officers' off-duty work to exclude major events such as ones at the Fair
Grounds, where her two sons work.

The amendment,
co-sponsored by Hedge-Morrell and Councilwoman Stacy Head, would likely
mean that Sgt. Todd Morrell and Officer Nicholas Morrell would be
exempted from a new requirement that they be periodically rotated out of
their Fair Grounds detail.

The recently adopted federal consent decree limits how much
officers can work off-duty, prohibits low-ranking officers from
supervising higher-ranking ones in such work, and moves oversight of the
detail program from the Police Department to a new office in City Hall.

The decree also requires that officers who work regular
details be rotated out at least once a year in order to provide "a fair
and equitable number of secondary employment opportunities to all NOPD
employees."

The ordinance would have exempted some officers from that
requirement: those who work "Major Special Events" such as Mardi Gras,
Jazz Fest, Essence Music Festival and college sports championships.

Hedge-Morrell and Head's amendment broadened the definition
of "Major Special Events" to include any event with an attendance above
2,000 at a number of venues, including the Fair Grounds. The amendment
passed in a unanimous 6-0 vote during the council's July 11 meeting.
(District B Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell was absent for the vote.)

Police spokeswoman Remi Braden confirmed that both Morrells
worked Fair Grounds details "as recently as last year." Braden,
contacted by The Lens late Thursday afternoon, could not immediately
provide information on how much they earned there. Fair Grounds
officials did not return repeated requests for the events that Todd and
Nicholas Morrell worked.

In a phone interview, Hedge-Morrell acknowledged that she knew her sons work off-duty at the Fair Grounds.

The Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics requires elected officials to recuse themselves from voting on items in which they or their immediate families have a "substantial economic interest."
Elected officials are allowed to discuss those items, but only after
disclosing a conflict of interest. Hedge-Morrell did neither prior to
the July 11 vote.

"They work a detail doing patrols in the neighborhood,"
Hedge-Morrell said in an interview. But she said she didn't change the
ordinance in order to benefit her sons. The language in the amendment
was suggested by the Fraternal Order of Police, she said.

That's true, said Raymond Burkart, a spokesman for the
association. The amendment expanded the exemption to a long list of
large venues, including the Superdome, the New Orleans Arena and the
Saenger Theater. Neither the Fair Grounds nor Hedge-Morrell's sons were
the focus, he said.

"I personally do not know that they work the Fair Grounds.
The intent of the amendment had nothing to do with her sons," Burkart
said. "The intent had to do with venues with a capacity of 2,000 people
or more."

He said he specifically requested that such venues be
excluded because "when you're dealing with major venues as an officer,
if you have an emergency situation at the Saenger Theater, if you've
been working it for years, you know every nook and cranny of it."

Burkart said the association "went out of our way to keep her [Hedge-Morrell's] kids out of it. We didn't talk to them."

Hedge-Morrell further pointed out that her sons only work
the detail; they don't coordinate it or make assignments, which Braden
confirmed.

"My sons are police officers," Hedge-Morrell said. "They
put on a vest and go to work every day, just like every other police
officer."

The amended ordinance is scheduled for a full City Council
vote on August 8, according to the annotated agenda for the July 11
meeting. Hedge-Morrell said if she concludes that there is a conflict of
interest, she will recuse herself from that vote.

This story was originally published by The Lens, an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans.